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Biggest streaming stories - 2025 Recap · What the Flux

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: This is what the flax. I'm Brett and I'm Justin
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: and it's Friday, the nineteenth of December. In this recap episode,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: we're breaking down the biggest streaming stories of twenty twenty five.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Twenty twenty five was a turning point for streaming. It
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: was about big deals, ownership shakeups and platforms that are
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: picking new sides. So let's take a recap of the
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: three biggest streaming stories of twenty twenty five in Australia
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  Speaker 1: and around the world.
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  Speaker 2: Three massive stories today, Juzzy boy let's do it for
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: our first. Dezone, the sports streaming platform and Foxtel's new owner,
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  Speaker 2: has made a US nine hundred and thirty six million
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  Speaker 2: dollar loss in twenty twenty four.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Nothing like a company that celebrates losing slightly less money
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: this year, so tell.
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  Speaker 2: Me more so. De Zone spelled da z N was
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  Speaker 2: founded in twenty fifteen and has ambitions to become the
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Spotify of sport.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah. It's a global sports streaming service owned by Access Industries,
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  Speaker 1: which is a private investment group owned by Len Blavatnik
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  Speaker 1: and Jasey Boyd.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: The Zone has made quite the splash in Australia recently
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  Speaker 2: after acquiring Foxtel for two point two billion dollars.
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  Speaker 1: But then, man, it ain't just Foxtel. De Zone also
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  Speaker 1: owns broadcast rights to the Bundesliga and LaLiga Soccer.
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  Speaker 2: Also Boxing MMA, the NFL internationally.
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  Speaker 1: Now, the good news for de Zone is that it's
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  Speaker 1: revenue climb to three point two billion US dollars in
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: All right, hit me with some bad news, juzzy boy.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Well, despite that revenue, the Zone still made a nine
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: hundred and thirty six million US dollar loss for the year,
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  Speaker 1: which is actually.
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  Speaker 2: A better performance than it's a one point four billion
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  Speaker 2: dollar loss the year before.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: So to keep the lights on, do Zone had to
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: call in a billion dollars from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Fun and don't forget five hundred and eighty seven million
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: dollars from Access Industries.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: But do Zone CEO reckons twenty twenty six is its
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  Speaker 1: year as it pushes towards profitability.
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  Speaker 2: Big talk for a team still deep in the red zone.
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  Speaker 1: So what is the key leading here?
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  Speaker 2: The path to profitability is the journey a company takes
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  Speaker 2: from operating at a loss to generating consistent net income.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, For high growth companies, early life are often a
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  Speaker 1: bit part of the plan.
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  Speaker 2: It's the price of building technology or buying rights attracting
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: millions of customers.
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  Speaker 1: But for these high growth companies, the key is also
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: showing a clear path towards profitability.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Or else investors can feel like they're investing good money
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: after bad and ultimately just lose hope.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: That's not to say it is impossible to hit profitability
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: after many years be man. Take Amazon for example, uh huh.
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  Speaker 2: It's spent nearly nine years focused purely on growth before
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  Speaker 2: turning its very first annual profit in two thousand and three, and.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Ubertook even longer. They reported their first operating profit fourteen
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: years after launching.
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  Speaker 2: So Juzzy Boy. If de Zone wants to become the
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: quote Spotify of sport, it needs to start showing can
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: actually become a sustainable business.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: For our second story, YouTube has smashed viewership records and
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  Speaker 1: ad revenue as it competes head on with old school
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  Speaker 1: TV channels.
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  Speaker 2: YouTube's come a long way since Charlie bit my finger.
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  Speaker 2: So tell me more, okay? So YouTube is owned by Alphabet,
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  Speaker 2: which also owns Google, Google Cloud, Android, bit Bit, Gemini
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  Speaker 2: Way mow and plenty more and the man.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Google bought YouTube back in two thousand and six for
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: just one point sixty five billion US dollars.
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  Speaker 2: And now YouTube is making nearly eight times that amount
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  Speaker 2: in advertising revenue each and every year.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: That's right, YouTube's ad revenue jumped to nine point eight
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: billion US dollars in the past year, which was up
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: thirteen percent.
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  Speaker 2: But even scarier than that, Juzzy Boy, is that YouTube
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  Speaker 2: isn't just an online video streaming platform anymore.
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  Speaker 1: It's considered more of a fully fledged TV network because
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  Speaker 1: of its ability to be connected to your TV.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, YouTube now accounts for twelve point eight percent
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  Speaker 2: of all TV viewership.
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  Speaker 1: That's the high share any platform has ever hit, according
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  Speaker 1: to Nielsen and Juzzy Wait, this is just another reminder
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  Speaker 1: of how connected TV has crushed old school TV networks
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  Speaker 1: and will probably continue to do so a RIP network
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  Speaker 1: ten So what is the key learning here?
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  Speaker 2: Connected TV or CTV is the new battleground for advertisers,
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  Speaker 2: and YouTube has already won the first few rounds of
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  Speaker 2: this battle.
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  Speaker 1: You say, by man. Unlike traditional TV ads, which are
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  Speaker 1: often hard to measure, CTV ads are delivered via Internet
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  Speaker 1: connected TVs.
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  Speaker 2: That means they can target their audience a whole lot better.
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  Speaker 1: They know what that viewers watched previously as well as
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  Speaker 1: their interests.
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  Speaker 2: They can track data on the performance of the ads
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  Speaker 2: as well.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, they're not guessing that the audience of the block
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  Speaker 1: is middle aged men and women in a two story
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  Speaker 1: house in metro Melbourne or Sydney. In fact, by Man
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  Speaker 1: YouTube claims CTV ads on its platform drove over one
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  Speaker 1: billion conversions in the past twelve months.
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  Speaker 2: So Josey boy YouTube isn't just an online video platform
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  Speaker 2: no more.
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  Speaker 1: It's a TV network, a search engine, a music service,
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  Speaker 1: and an ad tech beast all in one.
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  Speaker 2: And clearly it is working. Yeah.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: For our third and final story, Paramount has crashed the
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  Speaker 1: Hollywood party with a one hundred and eight billion US dollar
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  Speaker 1: hostile bid for Warner Brothers.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: Discovery puts the popcorn in that microwave. Jussy Boy, close
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: the door, because this is peak Hollywood drama. Tell me more.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, So Warner Brothers Discovery is the entertainment giant behind HBO, CNN, DC, Comics,
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  Speaker 1: Harry Potter, and HBO Max as well.
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  Speaker 2: This is the company that actually merged Warner Brothers and
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  Speaker 2: Discovery back in April twenty twenty two in a forty
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: three billion dollar merger and b man Netflix.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Well, they need absolutely no introduction at all.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Late last week, Netflix announced a deal to acquire Warner
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  Speaker 2: Brothers Discovery studio and streaming business including HBO Max.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, this is a cash and stock offer that valued
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: this part of the business at seventy two billion US
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: dollars in equity.
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  Speaker 2: But this didn't include the discovery part of the business.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: And the man at the time, this deal was announced
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: and approved by Warner brother Discoveries board, and it seemed
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: like it was all wrapped up in a nice and
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: little package.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: Until Paramount Skydants entered the chat.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Paramount is now owned by David Ellison, sign of
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Oracle founder Larry Ellison, and.
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  Speaker 2: He has just launched an all cash, hostile takeover to
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Warner Brothers Discovery.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Paramounts offered to buy the entirety of Warner Brothers Discovery
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: in a one hundred and eight billion US dollar all
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: cash deal. A little late for this deal now, Juzzy
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  Speaker 1: Boy shortly and that's why Paramount's offer is a hostile one.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're taking their case directly to Warner brother Discovery's shareholders,
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: but Warner Bro Discoveries board still recommends the Netflix deal
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: for now. So what's the key learning here?
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: A hostile takeover is basically a corporate git crashing.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: It happens when a company attempts to acquire another business
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: by going directly to shareholders rather than negotiating with its board.
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  Speaker 1: It usually occurs when the target company has rejected previous
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: bids or prefers another buyer, like Warner choosing Netflix. And
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: in this scenario, Paramount is launching a tender.
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  Speaker 2: Offer that means shareholders receive a public invitation to sell
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: their shares at a specific price, in this case thirty
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: bukker rounies per share, which is.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Even higher than the Netflix offer of twenty seven dollars
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: per share.
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  Speaker 2: And this tender offer bypasses management entirely. I mean, for Paramount, the.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Goal is to accumulate enough shares to gain a majority
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: or controlling stake in Water Brothers Discovery.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: And this would then allow them to replace the existing
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: board and push the deal through.
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  Speaker 1: And the man, let me tell you, isn't the first
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  Speaker 1: time the Ellisons have done a hostile.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Takeover, all the way back two thousand and five Oracle,
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  Speaker 2: which was bounded by Ellison's father, they launched a hostile
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  Speaker 2: takeover offer for a company called PeopleSoft.
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  Speaker 1: Eblesoft tried to reject the offer multiple times that Oracle
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  Speaker 1: one and that support from shareholders to force the sale
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  Speaker 1: to happen.
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  Speaker 2: Next minute, deal closed and PeopleSoft became part of Oracle's
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  Speaker 2: Enterprise software division for ten point three billion US dollars.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: So, while tender offers rarely succeed, the Ellisons have a
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  Speaker 1: tried and tested playbook.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on Monday,